Ascent Trip Report

Thought I would go for a nice cool weather hike to get the blood flowing. Parked at the parking area at the north end of Mountain Lake. Nice spring house right there if you need water. The trail heads north, then splits about a quarter mile up. Take the blue blazes west, then southwest. The first highpoint is a short bushwhack to the left and up the rocky prominence. Drop back down and pick the trail back up and head past another knob. This one is almost as high as the first one, so you may want to tag it just in case. The trail passes to the east of it, but it is a short bushwhack to the top. The valley between the two knobs is around 650 feet and the trail is pretty rolling. There was an incredible amount of deadfall from the storms they had over the summer. Continue along the trail until you get to Jenny Jump #4. Here is where I diverged from the trail. One trail leads down to Mountain Lake. Another goes west...I didn't take this one, but it might circle back toward #4. I bushwhacked up to the ridge. It wasn't fun, but since it was late fall/winter it wasn't too bad. It would really be awful in the spring and summer. At the ridgecrest my GPS showed that the real highpoint is to the west. As I bushwhacked toward it, I found another trail that came up from the south. This probably hooks up with the other trail (meaning that my bushwhack was for naught). After summiting, I followed this trail down, but deadfall blocked the way. I ended up bushwhacking again to Somerset Drive, and hiked the mile and 3/4 back to the car.